well-crafted

New hobby

I have taken up crochet by way of participating in this Granny Square Sampler Crochet-Along. Thank you, Blair. What a fun way to play with color—one of my favorite things. Although I bought a few extra colors to round out my palette, this afghan will be mostly made of scraps.

This has been the perfect evening activity for taking the kids to evening swim at the pool or sitting with my honey and watching a little TV. (I love Jason Schwartzman)

Lots of pretty squares here. And check out this amazing project. Absolutely gorgeous!

New Territory

 

Oh, improvisational piecing, where have you been all my life?

Last summer I had the good fortune to attended a workshop at PNCA with Denyse Schmidt. It was fantastic! Denyse is a very inspiring person and thoughtful artist and I highly recommend this workshop. My kind table mate and others in attendance have written about the experience eloquently here, and here. (I concede I am a little late posting about this now but better late than never, right?)

Working intuitively this way is definitely my cup of tea. For me, it’s very much like painting, only with fabric. Playing with color, scale, pattern and composition and letting the piece grow while making decisions about the design along the way rather than starting with a plan, is a very satisfying way to work. Since that wonderful weekend, my blocks have been sitting around my sewing room, waiting patiently to become something. Last month, I was finally able to make that happen in the form of some quilted pillow covers for our living room. I think they turned out pretty great!

Fun with plant dyes

I spent all of last weekend learning how to use natural dyes. Mackenzie Frère (whose residency at MOCC begins this week) was an excellent instructor. The whole process was fascinating, particularly the stuff about pre- and post-mordanting. What a huge difference this makes in the variations of color you can get from one dye! We used logwood, madder, cochineal, marigolds, carrot tops and turmeric and ended up with about 30 different colors. I think the logwood and marigold were my favorite. I would love to see what combining those two would look like.

Books on my wish list now include: Wild Color, The Complete Guide to Natural Dyeing and The Handbook of Natural Plant Dyes. This summer, Kirk and I are going to transform the former laundry room in our basment into a really simple dye studio for me. Really exciting!

Full set of images here.